2x7600GT in sli mode or single mid range card??

i am in a bit of a pickle i am making a gaming machine (not a top spec one)

so far i have

ASU P5N SLI board
2 GB of OCZ DDR2 800 Mhz ram
and an Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 processor

but for the graphics i was wondering whether to go for 2 cheaper 7600GT's in SLi or to maybe invest in a better single card.

the machine will mainly be used for Counterstrike/Halflife and Photoshop work??

help

Definetly a single card. You can get an x1950xt for just over $200 these days.

8800GTS 320MB is the only way to go.

Good Luck

thanks guys i suppose i can always buy a decent Geforce and Sli it in the future.

looks like i will be getting a single card many thanks again.

An X1950 Pro would be perfect for what you're wanting to do.

IMHO, SLI is only worth it on top-end cards (8800) and if you have money. Even then, the performance gained per cost is not good.

If you're definitely not going to do SLI in the future and need to buy right now, then yea, 1950 pro is the way to go.

I you are considering SLI, you might want to wait about a month for the 8600. It's DX10 compatible and should edge out 1950 pro by a good margin in DX9.

no point sli-ing midrange or lowrange. you should get a x1950pro/x1950gt/7900gs/7900gt.

Why do people say are only going to play a few certain games.

I thought that when I decided I wanted to upgrade my existing computer to play all the games I had missed over the years, but I thought that that would be a waste of money as my computers with a cheapish midrange card would not play many (if any) future games.

So I decided to spend quite a bit of money that would give me a system that would be able to play yesterdays games and hopefully play future games on resonable settings for a good 2 years at least.

Stating the obvious here, but PC components are expensive (for me) and I dont want to waste £80 just to play a couple of particular games.

yeah never thought of that i have a 20" samsung widescreen mate so i wanted something a little pokier for the near future

I still say!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130082


The only way to go.

To hell with that. Save you money and buy a new 8800 for $259. at the egg. Oh, and next month don't forget boout the X6850 for $299.

for any amount of long term gaming, youll probably want a DX10 capable gpu (an 8800GTS 320 is the cheapest currently)... theres no DX10 games out yet, but itll be nice knowing you at least can have DX10 functionality if you ever did decide to play a DX10 based game (plus any DX9 and older games will play pretty smooth too)... this way you wont have to worry about SLIing 2 mid range cards, and getting less performance than the single card offers anyhow... this assuming you might switch over to vista eventually too

I'm guessing he wants room for future expansion? Doesn't hurt when you don't have to buy a new card every time you switch games.

The newest will become the oldest the slowest hence the 8800 320mb. at $259 is on par with 2ea 7600 cards price wise. But will kick there ass.

"The only truth is ones own perseption"

Nice. I pretty much have the same build as you, except for slower 667MHz Corsair ram. I also have a 20" Samsung widescreeen; SyncMaster 205BW (what one u got? =D) and I have a Sappire Radeon X1950Pro. I don't play HL2 but I do play CSS. I average about 80-115fps at the monitors native resolution with all settings up high & AAx4 and 2xAF. On larger servers like 48 slot the fps is more like 40-60 but it's normally in normally hangs around 90 for the most part. I am very happy with the results.

Btw, I tried pushing absolutely everything up in the video settings just to see what fps I'd get in CS:S and the results were amazing. 24 slot server All settings up high AFx8 6xAA and it hangs around 70-90fps.

Any other games I play I can play with all settings up high and the card performs well Rome Total War, Medeval 2 Total War, GTA San Andeeas, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.